How Jomo Sono plans to change the game with free TV streaming service

Should DStv, Netflix and Showmax be worried about Jomo Sono's latest business venture?

Local soccer boss and popular football veteran Jomo Sono is going where no other has dared to go before.

Teaming up with Israeli business Cast-TV, Sono has launched a free TV streaming platform called TV2GO, which will give viewers access to over 100 channels of free content, ranging from movies, educational material and kiddies’ movies, to gospel music, sports, and religion, spirituality and reality shows, among others.

Speaking to Talk Radio 702, Sono said the business venture had been two years in the making and had come about following a business trip to Israel where he was first introduced to TV2GO. Given the many layers of costs involved in broadcast TV – whether through a traditional TV set via paid-for satellite TV through subscription, to a service like DStv or Open View (where you also have to pay for an annual TV licence) or online streaming services that require you to pay a monthly subscription fee, TV2GO is different because it’s completely free.

“There is no subscription. You just have to buy data, get a link and watch whatever you want,” he says.

Sono’s Infinity SA owns a 26% stake in TV2GO and he says the business makes its money strictly from advertising revenue.

His bigger vision for the streaming service is to introduce a focus on local sports and music legends to ensure that our local talent and heroes aren’t forgotten once they retire.

In its testing phase, TV2GO garnered 30 000 viewers during its soft launch period and the target is to reach 500 000 viewers by the end of 2019.